EU, UK impose first-ever joint sanctions against Russian cyber-war complex

Editor's note: This article was update to include NATO's welcoming of the new measures.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The EU and the U.K. announced joint sanctions against Russians involved in cyber attacks against no fewer than nine EU countries on July 13 and called out Moscow's Federal Security Service (FSB) for coordinating a range of state and non-state actors to attack the bloc.

"Today we expose the 16th Center of Russia's FSB as controlling a variety of cyber threat groups," reads a press statement issued from a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Activities carried out by the group, the statement claims, included "infiltration of governmental networks and sabotage of critical infrastructure," in at least nine EU countries.

"From directing criminals to targeting businesses, and striking Poland’s energy grid in the depths of winter, the Russian state is sinking to new lows in its attempts to undermine European security," said British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper in a press release.

NATO's North Atlantic Council soon after noted the EU and U.K. statements, and called on Russia to "stop these destabilizing activities, which disregard agreed international norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace."

The decision lands less than a month after a report co-produced by Ukraine and the EU found that Russia is engaged in a systematic online campaign to undermine Kyiv's EU membership process.

The EU also agreed on July 13 to sanction nine individuals and four entities working to destabilize the bloc, which include "intelligence officers, cybercriminals, self-proclaimed hacktivists, and private companies."

Those sanctions are being issued as part of the EU's 21st sanctions package, expected to be adopted, albeit in a watered-down form, later the same day.

That package will include some 250 listings targeting specific entities, the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, told journalists just ahead of the foreign ministers' meeting.

"This is the biggest number of listings we have done so far," she said.

Romania's Foreign Minister Oana Toiu told reporters that Bucharest proposed six of the new listings against those engaged in cyber attacks, "the first time we put forward listings for the sanction package."

The EU's Sanctions Envoy David O'Sullivan told the Kyiv Independent in an interview that there is constant work to align sanctions policy across allied countries, but the latest measures are the first time the U.K. and the EU have aligned ahead of an announcement.

Kallas separately mentioned that the foreign ministers will agree on a new partnership mission in Armenia to combat "cyber attacks, illicit financial flows, and other threats."